The Difference Between Safety and Comfort

In his blog post on trigger warnings, Jack Halberstam argues that when “LGBT communities make ‘safety’ into a top priority . . . and ground their quest for safety in competitive narratives about trauma, the fight against aggressive new forms of exploitation, global capitalism and corrupt political systems falls by the way side.” I think that what he says is partly true, especially in terms of making suffering a competition (that doesn’t get anyone anywhere), but I guess I’m wondering what he means when he talks about safety, especially considering he puts in it quotation marks that seem to assign it a certain (negative) meaning.

I know that safety is something that we can never really count on, especially not in society as it works right now. I know that it’s naïve to try to call a space safe when literally anything can be triggering and when we really don’t have any control over what anyone says or does to another person. Nobody is ever really safe from being triggered, which I think is part of Halberstam’s point. But what I don’t agree with is his idea that making safety into a top priority is preventing movements from making (productive progress). We discussed in class the neoliberalistic tones entrenched in this way of thinking, but I think Halberstam needs to rethink the idea of safety.

I think there is a difference between being safe and being comfortable and I don’t think that Halberstam takes that into account. Queer people live lives that are often both unsafe and uncomfortable. But I don’t think safety should be something you actively compromise on – comfort, however, is a different story.

To feel safe is different than to feel comfortable. You can feel safe and still feel uncomfortable and that is where I think trigger warnings are useful. They arm a person with a choice, with information, both of which they may have been denied if they experienced abuse or trauma. That person, if they feel confident enough to continue the conversation, will inevitably be uncomfortable, but they might, at least, feel safe enough to listen and maybe even to speak about their own experiences.

Basically, I think it is necessary that we be made to feel uncomfortable when we talk about trauma. But I don’t think safety is something that has to be compromised in order for that to happen.